Escape is such a thankful Word by Emily Dickinson

Analysis

In "Escape is such a thankful Word", "escape" is referencing her soul. She saw that her salvation was only found when she was free. She didn't want to be confined by what others expected.

This poem contains three stanzas with four lines each. The first and third stanzas are made up of iambic-tetrameters and the second and fourth are made up of iambic-triameters. It has the imperfect rhyme scheme of ABCB throughout it.

Johnson number: 1347

Poem

Escape is such a thankful WordBy Emily Dickinson
Escape is such a thankful Word
I often in the Night
Consider it unto myself
No spectacle in sight
Escape - it is the Basket
In which the Heart is caught
When down some awful Battlement
The rest of Life is dropt -
'Tis not to sight the savior -
It is to be the saved -
And that is why I lay my Head
Upon this trusty word -
Written in 1875.